Denik: a company of creatives using art to promote global education

This week, we’re highlighting the inspiring story and great work of one of our partners. Denik is a group of artists, creatives and activists with the common goal of showing how art can change the world.

“We are the movement that inspires creativity and self-expression. We’re a company that gives back. We hope to inspire a creative life.”

The collective lifestyle brand creates unique notebooks, which are used to help fund schools around the world and support artists. The founders started as college students at Utah State University, artists wanting to achieve something great with their art. The students scraped together some funds to buy initial equipment and began printing their original notebooks.

We would sell the products out of our apartments and the trunks of our cars. We would set up tables at concerts, farmers markets, poetry readings and 5k’s. We would tell anyone and everyone about our movement. And, eventually, people started taking notice.

Denik has evolved into a collective lifestyle brand that works with artists from around the globe to create and sell notebooks in support of art and education. Through every notebook, Denik empowers both artists and buyers to make a lasting impact in the world.

After finishing their first school in 2013 in Mali, the Denik team decided to grow their outreach and find another organization to partner with to build their next school. Drawn to the emphasis on community engagement, Denik decided to continue their mission of supporting global education by partnering with PoP!

Committed to building two schools, one in Guatemala and one in Laos, Denik is halfway there, having already raised enough for one school build. We’re proud to have them as our partner and are so excited to continue working with them as they reach their goal.

The mantra at Denik, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime” is integral to Denik’s cause and to our own. This simple principle unifies our organizations through empowerment and opportunity and that’s a commonality that really matters.

“We believe that education allows people to innovate and to make positive change. Education allows people to be a force for good, and to learn from the mistakes and successes of other individuals throughout history.”